Wait a Minute. My Parking Meter Is Calling.

PARKING meters have been objects of scorn almost from the time they were introduced in the 1930s. Paul Newman drove that point home in the opening scene of “Cool Hand Luke,” when he cut off the heads of a string of meters.

Part of people’s antipathy toward them is that they are often cumbersome to use. Drivers need handfuls of coins, a good idea of how long they need to park and faith that they have read traffic signs correctly so they will not get a ticket. Arguing your case in traffic court is no joy, either.

But the Photo Violation Technologies Corporation, a start-up from Vancouver, British Columbia, has found a solution that may please both drivers and local governments. The company is testing meters that accept coins, bills and some credit cards, so that drivers can avoid having to feed the meter and stay as long as they like. The machines, however, don’t make change.

If drivers want to use cash, the meters, which connect to a wireless network, can send text messages to the drivers’ cellphones to remind them to add more money.

The meters also communicate with traffic officials who can track which meters are being used and which ones need to be ticketed and serviced. To ensure that drivers do not skip out without paying, sensors the size of hockey pucks buried in the asphalt detect when cars pull in. A camera inside the meter takes pictures of license plates to help with enforcement.

Fred Mitschele, the founder and chief executive of Photo Violation, developed the meters after years of frustration with street parking.

“I’d always be stressed out that I didn’t have enough coins, and I’d be in meetings and have to run out,” he said.

Photo

Fred Mitschele with his high-tech meter.

Mr. Mitschele’s idea was to make it easy for drivers to pay with a credit card so they would not have to worry about how long they parked, while simultaneously helping cities generate more money. Drivers who return to their cars up to 30 minutes after their meters expire can pay the difference to avoid a fine. If they exceed that grace period, they can pay the fine on the spot with a credit card or cash and receive a discount.

This can help cities reduce their legions of parking enforcement officers who troll the streets looking for cars to ticket. The meters can also bolster revenue and, if parking rates are set high enough, nudge drivers out of their cars and onto trains and buses.

Mr. Mitschele said cities could make their money back on the meters, which cost $5,000, in six months. They are being tested in Vancouver, San Francisco and here in Niagara Falls, where 96 of them were turned on last month (although the wireless feature hasn’t been activated yet).

The city has had no meters for more than two decades and installed them to raise revenue. So far, drivers have used cash 55 percent of the time and credit cards for the rest. The city turns off the meters, which are powered by two small solar panels, near churches on Sunday mornings, and the ones in front of the Starbucks come with 30 minutes of free parking courtesy of the city “so people can get out and get a latte,” said Ralph F. Aversa, the city’s director of economic development.

He said the meters would help free up city employees. “The police can now concentrate on other aspects,” he said, adding that about 65 percent of the meters are being used eight hours a day. The meters could generate $150,000 a year, Mr. Aversa estimated. After the trial period ends in December, he said the city might lease the meters from Photo Violation or form a revenue sharing agreement.

The meters are just one example of how telecommunications are increasingly being integrated into toll and fee collection. E-ZPass, for instance, relies on radio frequency tags, cameras and networks to transmit data.

But city governments, by being able to monitor their meters more easily, may also start charging for parking in the evenings and on weekends, times when it had been free. Municipalities could also charge down to the minute so that parkers do not pay for time they do not use.